The opposition in the French parliament failed with two votes of no confidence in Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne and was unable to overthrow the government. The controversial pension reform, which President Emmanuel Macron pushed through without a vote at the end of last week, is a done deal. All that is missing now is his signature under the text of the law. Prime Minister Borne has thus saved her post for the time being. However, the opposition has announced that it will file a constitutional complaint against the reform.
According to surveys, more than two thirds of the French would have preferred a different outcome on Monday evening and had hoped that the French government would fall. 67 percent stated that they were dissatisfied with Prime Minister Borne. 68 percent of those surveyed had hoped that the head of government would lose the vote of confidence.
A total of 278 parliamentarians expressed their distrust in the government on Monday evening. Only nine votes were missing for an absolute majority, which would have been necessary to overthrow the government. The vote on the cross-party no-confidence vote by the Center was therefore much tighter than expected. There were only 94 votes for the right-wing national Rassemblement National (RN) vote of no confidence.
Contrary to expectations, numerous MPs from the bourgeois-conservative party Les Républicains (LR) have expressed their distrust in the government. This is likely to plunge France’s conservatives into a crisis. Retirement at 64 was not only part of the election program of her presidential candidate Valérie Pécresse. It also shows that there is no party discipline, because numerous MPs have ignored the instructions of their group leader. Macron will therefore not be able to rely on an alliance with the conservatives for future votes, such as the reform of immigration law.
Three quarters of French people reject the pension reform, which was pushed through without a vote on Thursday last week. The recourse to Article 49.3 of the Constitution, which passed legislation without a vote, has further fueled palpable anger in the country for what is perceived as a “contempt for democracy”. With the government voted out, there would have been an institutional exit from the crisis. President Macron could have called new elections as a result.
Unannounced demonstrations have erupted in Paris and the provinces every evening since the government pushed through the reform for fear of losing the vote on Thursday. Cars and rubbish bins are set on fire, an easy feat in Paris where, after nearly two weeks of work stoppages, strikers have been forced to collect rubbish after more than 10,000 tonnes of rubbish piled up on the capital’s sidewalks. Ministers and members of parliament receive threats. Dolls symbolizing Macron and his Prime Minister Borne are burned. The window of the constituency office of Conservative leader Éric Ciotti has been smashed in Nice. Even the Palais Bourbon, where the Paris National Assembly meets, has been largely secured with riot-tested roadblocks for Monday’s vote, as if Macron feared a French version of the American storming of the Capitol.
“How could this little pension reform provoke such chaos?” asks a French columnist, lamenting the reform’s lack of courage. Even for former supporters, the pension reform has lost substance due to numerous concessions. It is disputed how much money it will pour into the state coffers, but the only certainty is that it is much less than originally planned. The political price, however, is high. The clumsy, if not arrogant, actions of the government and the silent president have provoked a serious governmental and democratic crisis. Observers assume that the protests could become more radical. A repeat of the yellow vest crisis cannot be ruled out. Much depends on how many protesters turn out for the next nationwide day of action next Thursday and whether the strikes remain largely peaceful.
Meanwhile, all opposition politicians and union leaders are calling for the reform to be withdrawn. The government has failed with this reform, says Laurent Berger, head of the moderate trade union CFDT. “The country has slipped from a social crisis into a democratic crisis,” said Berger. It is unclear how Macron wants to end this. A “great national debate” like during the yellow vest crisis will not be enough this time.
